Biffy Clyro back with “The Myth of the Happily Ever After” on October 22

Recently passed into new hands, French label Dixiefrog intends to leverage its heritage to open new horizons.

After nearly thirty-five years of holding DixieFrog at arm’s length more often than its turn, its founder, Philippe Langlois, decided to officially take a step back in January 2000. But since the history of the label has never been one long calm river. , it was not necessary to wait three months – and for the emergence of a certain epidemic – for the new impetus desired by their captains, André Brodzki and François Mensant, to weaken somewhat. “The absence of end-of-concert sales, even more essential in the world of blues and roots music, is a loss of 30 to 40% of your turnover.”, thus accepting the first name without false modesty. But it is not enough to quell the enthusiasm of the concerned person.

Brodzki also readily admits that it wasn’t about buying DixieFrog to revolutionize everything, to undo what had been done. Quite intelligent and logical when you find yourself sitting on a nest egg of nearly four decades old (1986) and 400 references. However, the priority in his mind was to offer new artists to join the label and at the same time be responsible for bringing in a greater musical variety while a bit modern, an alternative 360° mixing co-edition contract and a Turner’s contract. partnership with.

Designing the future while relying on the past, it is in any case in the sense that the label has had a whole lot of releases in recent times: Jesse Lee, Archie Lee Hooker, about Sarperdownholm and New Zealand artist Grant Houa. Which Brodzki does not hesitate to talk about as a gift from heaven. “We are officially 1. has become the owner of the label^Is January, he continues. Less than two weeks later, we received an email, written in French with an automatic translation and therefore with all the facts of syntax and conjugation that one can imagine, where it sent us a single Served as a demo in time where there was already everything of juice from the upcoming album. Even today, I am fascinated by this mix of tradition and innovation, with these Māori roots that ultimately also have very blue roots.I”.

Tradition, heritage, it has been since the beginning of the summer to maintain a new collection at Dixiefrog. Signal Name: vintage series. Principle: Reissue references to a given label specifically for sale on your site at the rate of three per month. Thus the first part is open for pre-sale from June 28 and through the end of September, with delivery in November. “We started with several ideas, Brodzki explains. 1/ We had a tremendous asset with such a rich label. 2/ Many of these albums have never been released on vinyl. 3/ It was a way to help artists by helping themselves as a label: to see on this or that website that some of our artists were selling their guitars so they could pay their rent was just unbearable“

There is also the idea that every time our man is called a “heavyweight” in economic terms (Poppa Chubby on this introductory part – with the first reference to the label in 1986; Pura Fey and his Tuscarora Nation Blues of 2006 following on one), A “middleweight” (a live album in tribute to Fred Chapplier and Peter Green, the first album by Neil Black & the Healer from 1993 and then becoming a collector), a “lightweight” ending (Watermelon Slim and his shiny dobrow here) , Tomorrow album chos d’Acadie by Patrick Verbeke). “The best proof that we want to be around for the long haul is the variety in offers that’s okay.”, tells Brodzki to address the skeptics who wish to see only a “blow to see” in operation. ” Had there been an idea to close up shop after ‘One Shot’, we wouldn’t have put out an album like Watermelon Slim which is still too loud when we were under our elbows live on FIP. By Eric Bibb, A Lucky Peterson Anthology Or ​​Any Other Poppa Chubby Album…“

The interested party also wishes to recognize that the pre-sales system as well as the time between placing and receiving orders will not be such a break with the public not necessarily accustomed to the process. Here again, the norms of economic knowledge prevailed, starting with the precise control of the number of copies to be produced after the membership was closed, which our interlocutors do not hide either: “Beyond the idea of ​​eliminating most of the middlemen so that the operation is economically viable and therefore favoring direct selling on our site, the main problem has been identified: delays in vinyl manufacturing have become unbearable. Lots of requests, a few factories… between the moment you, the record label, decide to launch the project and when it’s delivered, it’s at least five months… so more Precise adjustment is required, which facilitates the principle of pre-sale.“

Pre-order your vinyl

Xavier Bonnet